Mother's Day in Costa Rica

On this day, all mothers and grandmothers are given very expensive gifts.On this day, all mothers and grandmothers are given very expensive gifts: often even refrigerators, furniture or good clothes.

All large families (sometimes up to 100 people!) gather at Grandma’s house. Everyone can not fit at the table, so they sit down where they can: who is on the couch, who is on the bench, and who is on the ladle. Common food: pilaf with chicken, mashed black beans, crunchy potatoes, fresh cabbage salad with tomatoes.

They drink mainly beer, as well as rum or vodka, heavily diluted with Coca-Cola or orange juice with ice. Drinks are poured in the kitchen, and drunk from disposable plastic cups, all over the house. A toast is given only once, one of the family members, the most eloquent, thanking God for having such a wonderful mother. The toast is followed by prayer.

Then the show of gifts begins, as always, with jokes, laughter and exclamations: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh How wonderful! How sweet! Soon the dances begin, and grandmothers are also pulled out to the cheerful sounds of salsa or cumbia. In Costa Rica, everyone dances from four to eighty.